NEWSIES, the Tony Award-winning "critics' pick" Broadway musical smash, will play an exclusive 4-week premiere engagement at Hollywood Pantages in Spring 2015.
The North American tour of NEWSIES will launch in October 2014, commencing in Schenectady, NY prior to an official opening in Philadelphia, PA. During the 2014-15 season, the tour will play 25 cities, over 43 weeks, including the following (in alphabetical order): Atlanta (Fox Theatre), Baltimore (Hippodrome Theatre), Boston (Opera House), Charlotte (Blumenthal Performing Arts Center), Chicago (Bank of America Theatre), Columbus (Ohio Theatre), Dallas (AT&T Performing Arts Center /Winspear Opera House), Durham (Durham Performing Arts Center), Houston (Hobby Center for the Performing Arts), Las Vegas (Smith Center for the Performing Arts), Los Angeles (Hollywood Pantages), Louisville (Kentucky Center for the Arts), Miami (Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts), Nashville (Tennessee Performing Arts Center), Orlando (Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts), Philadelphia (Academy of Music), Pittsburgh (Benedum Center), San Antonio (Majestic Theatre), San Francisco (Orpheum Theatre), Schenectady (Proctors), Toronto (Princess of Wales Theatre), Tucson (Centennial Hall), Washington, D.C. (National Theatre) and Waterbury (Palace Theater). Additional cities will be announced at a later date.
NEWSIES features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, with a book by four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, NEWSIES is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work.
NEWSIES has consistently exceeded expectations since premiering on Broadway at The Nederlander Theatre in March 2012. Originally transferred to Broadway as a limited engagement of a few dozen performances, the breakout hit is now approaching its 700th performance.
In a remarkable demonstration of the breadth of the title's appeal, ticket orders had arrived from all 50 states within weeks of its first Broadway performance in 2012. Since then, NEWSIES has set and broken seven Nederlander Theatre house records and become the biggest hit of the 2011-12 season.
The show received 23 major theatrical nominations - including eight Tony Award nods - and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Score and Best Choreography. One of Broadway's highest profile hits, it has been featured nationally on "Dancing with the Stars," "The View," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," and "The CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade."
Included in the best-of year lists for Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and The Daily News, NEWSIES can be counted one of the most critically-praised shows of recent seasons. Entertainment Weekly raves, "stop the presses! NEWSIES is an irresistible, high energy winner... a surprise sensation!" Time Out New York calls NEWSIES, "an invigorating extravaganza! A barnstorming, four-alarm delight," and The New York Times hails it, "a musical worth singing about," praising the "terrific songs - buoyant melodies by Alan Menken and rousing lyrics by Jack Feldman - and a sweet, funny, emotionally satisfying book by Harvey Fierstein."
Set in New York City at the turn of the century, NEWSIES is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'NEWSIES,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.
NEWSIES is inspired by the real-life 'Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers.
The stage version introduces seven brand-new songs by the original team of Menken and Feldman while keeping many of the beloved songs from the film, including 'Carrying the Banner', 'Seize the Day,' 'King of New York' and 'Santa Fe.'
Since the film's 1992 theatrical release and subsequent DVD release, NEWSIES has grown into a cult phenomenon, and for years had been the single most requested title of all the Disney musical films not yet adapted for the stage. (The film featured a screenplay by Bob Tzudiker & Noni White (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians).